Away goals start on the double in Columbus
The MLS playoffs added a new wrinkle this year – the away goals rule.
Whether that was the incentive for New England Revolution’s storming start in Columbus on Saturday afternoon, or if it was just the inevitable momentum of a storming second half of the season, the Revs left a stunned Crew Stadium with four away goals.
Only Federico Higuain’s injury time cheeky Panenka of a penalty kept the score at 4-2 and gave the Crew some hope going into the second leg, but before they even think about racking up the away goals of their own they need to complete an unlikely turnaround at Gillette Stadium, they will have to come up with a better defence than the one that was ripped apart by a rampant Revs attack.
Having left Charlie Davies unmarked to run through for a diving header from a free-kick for the opener, then having conceded a free-kick in a dangerous position for Chris Tierney to knock home a second, by the time Lee Nguyen waltzed the length of their half to slot home a third the Crew defence had virtually backpedalled into its own net.
Before that goal, Justin Meram had forced home a goal for 2-1, and after Davies rounded off his afternoon with a fierce shot in off the post for 4-1 there was still time for Higuain’s late penalty to give the Crew faint hope. But only one team looked like winning, and it’s hard to see any other outcome next week.
It’s the Revs’ second successive playoff campaign, while Columbus have not reached the playoffs since 2011 (in terms of personnel, their main playoff experience came in the shape of Michael Parkhurst, with a steep drop off after him). New England lost a tough series to Sporting Kansas City last year, and arguably Sporting’s then-recent history of going close without progressing allowed them to take the next step towards winning the trophy.
This year it may be New England’s turn to reap the dividends of experience. From a poor start they have found form at the right time, a development popularly credited to the arrival and plug-and-play influence of Jermaine Jones. But as much truth as there is in Jones as the magic final jigsaw piece, or in the stats backing the “Nguyen for MVP” lobby, it’s also true that the young likes of Andrew Farrell and Kelyn Rowe went about their tasks on Saturday in the manner of players who’d been in that position before – mainly because they had, last year.
Of course playoff experience doesn’t automatically become entitlement to progress, but as the Revs began to pull away, the Crew did not look like the quietly confident side who three weeks ago were putting three past Philadelphia in the last 10 minutes to turn round a 2-0 deficit. They looked like a team sinking in uncharted waters. Whatever playoff lessons they have learned need to be absorbed by next week, if they are to steal the away goals they need and keep the Revs out. GP
RSL and LA blown to a standstill
The repeat of last year’s Western Conference semi-final was a game of two halves, and one strong wind.
By half-time in the first leg the hosts, Real Salt Lake, had spent 45 minutes sending sand wedge chips into the fierce wind sweeping into their faces at Rio Tinto Stadium. The Galaxy had a perfectly good Gyassi Zardes goal called back for offside and had given Robbie Keane plenty of opportunities to make life difficult for Chris Schuler at the heart of the RSL defence. Schuler, the hero of last year’s series, had just returned from a broken nose and various other facial fractures and was wearing a mask, and Keane had a couple of early flicks past him that suggested it could be a long night.
But neither side had scored and on a boxing-style score card, I was inclined to see that as a “10-9” lead for the Galaxy, who’d perhaps faced the notionally harder task in dealing with the RSL runners as Kyle Beckerman and Javier Morales used the wind to extend the workable space behind the LA defence.
If we were expecting the second half to be a mirror image of the first, instead LA dropped deeper into their own half and RSL tried to play their way through in a more familiar ball-at-their-feet style. It brought out a series of acrobatic saves from Jaime Penedo and some subtle reads of the wind from Javier Morales to torment the LA keeper from distance. LA had one promising break, but Keane of all people found his touch and decision-making letting him down on what at one stage was a four-on-two break.
The second half was a 10-9 round to RSL, as the final whistle went with neither team able to find a knockout punch.
Yet the gut instinct, perhaps counter to form and some of the orthodoxies of how two-legged ties tend to run under the away goals system, was that this was a marginally better result for RSL. In each half they set the agenda, and looked supremely organised on the defensive side, with Beckerman reading the play perfectly to dig his side out of trouble. They looked balanced and dangerous, while LA appeared to carry some of the passivity that marked some of their series against Seattle.
LA may only have lost once at home this season, though incidentally that was to RSL on the opening day, but they are in a tight one-off series now, and perhaps need reminding that there is nothing inevitable about the scripted romantic ending of Landon Donovan lifting the MLS Cup at the StubHub Center. Ultimately the wind didn’t blow them off course on Saturday night, but the Galaxy’s date with destiny may encounter more stormy weather next week if RSL can get a vital road goal. GP
New York are far more than a two-man team
It’s understandable. With Thierry Henry set to run out his contract with the New York Red Bulls this season, the Frenchman’s footballing brilliance has been magnified of late, particularly as his team now have the best chance they have ever had to best their Atlantic Cup rivals for a place in the final four.
Henry provided both assists in the Red Bulls’ 2-0 win over the Eastern top seed DC United on Sunday evening at Red Bull Arena. Bradley Wright-Phillips brought his season’s goal tally to 30, scoring his third goal in two playoff games in yet another case of the player being in the right place at the right time. The two have been the subject of tifos, interviews, and a heap of deserved media attention.
It’s therefore easy to forget that the Red Bulls, for all their faults, are not a two-player team.
For one, both New York full-backs – former Toronto FC defender Richard Eckersley and the four-year club veteran Roy Miller – were confident pushing up the pitch to stretch the play and use the width of the field, which caused United a host problems in defense. The two earned the confidence to move up in part from the assured presence of the two centre-backs Ibrahim Sekagya and Jamison Olave. The latter in particular showed some of the same mettle he did as MLS Defender of the Year in 2010, making a crucial last-minute intervention in the first half in addition to muscling Chris Pontius off the ball. Together they helped prevent United from taking a single shot within the 18-yard box.
And Dax McCarty too showed his worth in the early going, not least because Ben Olsen’s team sought to mark him out of the game early. He drew four fouls on the night and contributed in attack. As did Lloyd Sam, whose perfect pass led to Henry’s backheel assist, and Peguy Luyindula, whose poise allowed him to finish low and easily past a prone Bill Hamid in the second half. Luyindula was also a marvel in spurring the counter attack, often winning the ball in the centre circle before charging up the pitch. He replaced Tim Cahill, who may not get a start in the away leg.
No doubt Henry and Wright-Phillips are essential, but New York are starting to look like the total package at the best possible time. RW
Seattle and Dallas: mistake make all the difference
There is an old theory, espoused by former Watford and England manager Graham Taylor, that goals come from mistakes. While that is a vast simplification of the sport, in a home and away series in which the away goal rule is effect, sometimes fortunes turn on little slips and lapses in concentration. Seattle’s drab 1-1 draw against Dallas at Frisco revealed how set-pieces can play a huge role when teams are evenly matched, and how simple mistakes – both big and small – can suddenly tip the balance and drastically affect the odds.
Case in point – mistake No1: Dallas’ Mauro Diaz entered the field of play against Vancouver in their wild-card last week. That led to a disciplinary committee suspension for the first leg against Seattle. Without Diaz’s mobility and ability to switch up play, Dallas’ attacking repertoire was limited to sending ball after ball down the right flank in the hope that Fabian Castillo would do something brilliant with it, which, to be fair, he nearly did on at least one occasion. Even so, it was apparent Dallas would need a dead ball to score.
Mistake No2: Marco Pappa decided to make a lunging slide on Andres Escobar in the 32nd minute. Let’s say it was nerves? Or just a human mistake. With Michel waiting in the wings it was as good as scored, as it was against Vancouver in the midweek. Seattle would need at least an away goal to maintain something of an advantage at CenturyLink next weekend.
Mistake No3: an innocuous and unnecessary foul, by Moises Hernandez out wide in the 54th minute, sets up a free-kick which Pappa whipped with the most elegant of touch-ons from Ozzie Alonso. Seattle had their away goal and a dismal, windy game finished even.
With Seattle at home in front of a raucous home crowd, Dallas will need to be pitch-perfect next weekend. Seattle will need the Obafemi Martins-Clint Dempsey partnership to start yielding fruit. No room for error now, for both teams. RW
